Hello guys, as the subject says, this topc is about this, I was a bit tired of playing the same slow airs on my chieftain soprano D whistle, so I decided to move to jigs and reels, (reels and much more difficult),anyway, I checked this page :
and discover that the jigs I was playing were wrong, the notes could sound good as I learn the tune, but my rythmm was wrong,do you know any way or something to produce a good rythm jig, that’s to say, not the notes played at the same length, but giving a “lazy medieval”
feeling, daddley-dadaly, you know…
check out the page and know what I mean, specially the jig “swallowtail”,it has many repeated notes, that makes it tricky,I’m sure you will learn something new!.
exactly. that is why some of the best musicians can’t read music. the notated music acually distorts. and that is why piping teachers say that up to half our “practice time” should be spent listening. if you think its true of jigs wait till you play hornpipes- the liveliest rhythm cannot be captured in notation.
Agreed - I tried playing hornpipes from the sheet music and sounded awful - no swing, and played too fast. Jigs were even worse, if possible.
A good example makes all the difference (“The Boys of Bluehill” on the Micho Russell “Ireland’s Whistling Ambassador” CD really straightened me out on hornpipes). I still may not play as well as I (or my listeners) could wish, but at least now I know what a hornpipe or a jig should sound like.
One technique I’ve done for tunes that really give me problems is to just loop the same tune at moderate volume while I’m doing other things - reading, working in the kitchen, working out . . . Get the tune (and the rhythm, and the pace) into your bones.
This works best with headphones or if you’re alone in the house.
Find some recordings of jigs you like and listen, listen, listen. Once you’ve learned how they sound, then start playing. Kind of the same thing Dana just said.
Yep…the music tells you only a little bit about the tune…it’s good for telling you what note comes after which…but the rhythms, the ornamentation, everything ELSE, has to come from listening. I consider written down tunes to be a bare bones outline of the it.
